How can we improve skilling ecosystems? MIT’s Global Opportunity Forum releases research suggesting a way.
March 14, 2024
Deliotte predicts that U.S. manufacturing will have a skills shortage as deep as 2.4 million jobs by 2028. The shortage is urgent and has motivated a push to build durable ecosystems for helping manufacturing workers learn new skills.
In 2023, the Global Opportunity Forum team was asked to gather data on the state of advanced manufacturing training ecosystems in New England and to make recommendations for stakeholders. Today, we’re pleased to release a report on our research. We wanted to know: How ready are New England and its individual states to teach advanced-manufacturing skills needed in the region?
To answer that question, we started by reviewing findings from our latest research for MassBridge, which benchmarked advanced-manufacturing ecosystems in the U.S. We synthesized those findings into a portable framework for analyzing workforce learning ecosystems, or WLEs. This framework went through multiple iterations as we interviewed manufacturing leaders in New England. Finally, we used this framework to analyze WLEs in New England.
We interviewed 30 leaders from companies, workforce agencies, community colleges, and nonprofits in New England’s six states (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, and VT). Interviewees offered insight on ecosystems in New England, the region’s states, and local areas.
Analyzing interview comments and other external data, we identified common challenges and best practices across all of New England, as well as differences among the states. Analyzing the interviews also showed the power of our research framework for gauging how healthy a WLE is and for crafting interventions—whatever the industry.
Our readiness framework helps discover strengths and factors for improvement
To clarify our research, we theorized WLEs as complex networks of businesses, colleges, and other organizations that impact who learns what skills, where, and how. This theory enabled us to better discover and pinpoint what ecosystems do well and where they could improve.
We started with the premise that the primary indicator of a WLE’s health is whether its outputs meet market demand. Does a WLE help the right number of people learn the right skills, earn the right credentials, and connect with the right employers?
We found that WLEs must perform well in four areas:
- Sufficient learner demand—Enough learners enroll in learning programs to meet industry needs.
- High-quality learning programs—Learning programs teach needed skills effectively, support learners, and help learners connect with employers.
- Multi-stakeholder collaboration—Stakeholders meet regularly to align learning programs and industry needs.
- Financial sustainability—Learning programs and collaborations have sustainable funding models.
In our final report on this research, we have applied this framework to the manufacturing sector in New England. The results will interest readers in manufacturing—not only in New England but in any region that has similar challenges—and more generally. The report exhibits, with examples, how our framework can be used to make ecosystems better and, ultimately, to help more people learn skills that lead to good jobs.
Ecosystems in New England thrive best around big employers
Our interviews uncovered three ecosystems in New England that stood out. Our report presents a case study on each ecosystem. These ecosystems formed around large employers in defense:
- General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, ME
- BAE Systems, NH
- General Dynamics Electric Boat, RI
We have called these ecosystems Allied Large Employer Led Learning Ecosystems, or ALELLEs (an intentional misspelling of “alleles”). Around these employers, a loose alliance of other stakeholders have emerged. Together, large employers are working with smaller manufacturers, colleges, and other agencies to build and improve learning programs in advanced manufacturing.Our evidence suggests that ALELLEs may be New England’s biggest asset for building better training ecosystems in the region.
The most urgent challenge in New England is workforce attraction
Nearly every interviewee said workforce interest in manufacturing is low in New England. In our framework, this challenge affects the learning ecosystem by lowering “learner demand.” Too few people, our interviews suggest, are interested in learning advanced manufacturing.
While this challenge clearly affects manufacturers, it also has broader consequences for the whole ecosystem. With too few learners, schools can struggle to offer needed courses and purchase needed equipment. This situation can make learning programs unsustainable. It can also make high-quality learning programs less accessible for both students and employers, especially small-to-midsize manufacturers, with possible effects on regional supply chains.
Ecosystems around big employers could be targeted to strengthen advanced manufacturing training in New England
We have recommended that future strategies focus on helping New England’s ALELLEs grow and collaborate. These ALELLEs may need help with including additional stakeholders–other colleges, businesses, and workforce organizations. Doing so can help pool information and resources for mutual benefit. These ALELLEs may need assistance with collaboration, developing educational standards, and marketing careers. And they need ways to share across ecosystems, so that each ecosystem can, when possible, eliminate redundancies and share innovative practices as they develop.
The report also elaborates these and other findings, including detailed appendices discussing individual states in New England as well as other data relevant to understanding the region’s advanced-manufacturing workforce.
This research was performed on behalf of the New England Regional Defense Industry collaborative. It was funded with a grant provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, and conducted in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Manufacturing in the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech).
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